SINGAPORE \u2013 Over her 35-year career as a secondary school history teacher, Ms Tan Siew Hua taught generations of students that <\/p>\n Singapore had been suddenly expelled from Malaysia<\/p>\n <\/a> on Aug 9, 1965. <\/p>\n During lessons, she showed videos of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew breaking down on television as he announced the end of the political and economic union he had fiercely fought for.<\/p>\n To Ms Tan, who retired in 2012, parts of this narrative have been turned upside down by the <\/p>\n recent declassification of the Albatross File.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The documents detailing Singapore\u2019s 1965 Separation from Malaysia reveal a more nuanced story and confirm that the end of Singapore\u2019s time in the federation was negotiated.<\/p>\n They show that leaders from both nations pushed for a clean break after two years of merger \u2013 a story that runs counter to the idea which remains in the public imagination that Singapore was kicked out unilaterally by then Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. <\/p>\n The book \u2013 The Albatross File: Inside Separation \u2013 draws on the Albatross File, a collection of previously classified documents, alongside oral history interviews with Singapore\u2019s founding leaders.<\/p>\n PHOTO: ST FILE<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The new details that the documents provide could in time change how this part of Singapore history is taught in schools, said educators and historians. <\/p>\n The Ministry of Education (MOE) said, in response to queries from The Straits Times, that when relevant new historical materials such as the Albatross File become publicly available, they are incorporated into textbooks and digital resources during syllabus reviews and resource updates.<\/p>\n The idea of a negotiated Separation is not new.<\/p>\n This narrative has been public for some years through sources like Mr Lee\u2019s 1998 memoir The Singapore Story, said historian Tan Tai Yong, who is president of the Singapore University of Social Sciences. <\/p>\n It has also made it into the history curriculum in schools, in a process that started in the early 2000s after some of these sources were released in the late 1990s, said MOE lead curriculum specialist for history Noel Ong.<\/p>\n Students now learn that Singapore leaders had a hand in effecting and enacting Separation, and textbooks include information about the secret negotiations between both sides in the weeks leading up to it, he said. <\/p>\n This process \u2013 where new historical discoveries are slowly incorporated as they become more supported by historical evidence and more historians reach a consensus on the findings \u2013 has happened before, Mr Ong noted. <\/p>\n He cited archaeologist John Miksic\u2019s discoveries, made public in 1984, which gradually led to a new understanding that Singapore\u2019s history as a trading hub spanned roughly over 700 years. This was gradually woven into the history curriculum over about two decades.<\/p>\n MOE said it works with academics and organisations, including the National Archives of Singapore, National Heritage Board, National Library Board and National Museum of Singapore, to develop both the history and social studies syllabuses, textbooks and digital resources.<\/p>\n What the declassified file provides is documentary and oral history evidence that confirms Separation was not as sudden and unexpected as previously believed, Professor Tan said. <\/p>\n Prof Tan wrote part of the introduction to a book about the documents, titled The Albatross File: Inside Separation. <\/p>\n The book is accompanied by a permanent exhibition at the National Library Building that displays some of the file\u2019s documents. Both were <\/p>\n launched on Dec 7 by Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n These will provide new primary sources for teachers and students and enrich the learning of history, said history master teacher Candice Seet. <\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>